Even in the 80's there were a lot of surplus rifles for cheap everywhere. I got started in surplus rifles when I saw them at the local Woolworth store...163rd street mall in my case. They had racks of surplus rifles in the sporting goods department. The sporting goods manager Bill Hill was very knowledgeable about those rifles. There were Swedish M96 starting and German K98 starting at $89 with better quality ones for $109. There were also M1 Garand starting at $299 and some M1 Carbines starting at $350. I picked up a Swedish M96 for $109 around 1985 and then couple of K98 and M38 soon after. Cheapest rifles were Arisaka that were starting at $69. Even as a college student with no money I was able to afford a rifle or two every year. At that time period there were no Russian surplus rifles...Mosin Nagant rifles showed up few years later.